CA Jazz Choir performs with Foreigner at CMAC

Members of the Canandaigua Academy Jazz Choir joined rock group Foreigner on stage at its concert Wednesday, an experience students say was “exciting” and “unbelievable.”

What's even more unbelievable is that representatives for Foreigner personally invited the choir to perform at the concert at Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center. Academy choral director Amy Story said the band's marketing agent, John Lappan, reached out to her in May and she jumped at the opportunity to go on stage and sing their classic ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is,” which features a backing choir.

Story said it's typical for Foreigner to reach out to the school in the community where its performing to give them a chance to perform the song with the group.

“The students thought it was great; they loved it,” Story said. “I wouldn't say they were nervous, just excited about the experience. We practiced and they felt confident.

“They perform a lot, but this was exciting to take this project on because it was completely different from anything we have done before,” she added.

Story said the choir arrived at CMAC a couple of hours before the show to rehearse the song with the band.

The band also donated $500 to the choir and enlisted their help in fundraising for three charities. In addition to performing Wednesday, students sold Foreigner CDs, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to one or all of the charities: Rock to the Rescue, Shriners Children's Hospital and The Grammy Foundation, Story said.

“I have always been a fan of classic rock, and I've known Foreigner forever,” said choir member Noah Richelsen, a June graduate of Canandaigua Academy. ‘When she (Story) told us we could possible be singing with them I was definitely flipping out. I went home and told my family and they couldn't believe it.”

Richelsen said this experience was one of many amazing opportunities given to him through the Canandaigua Academy choral program, including a performance at the Rochester International Jazz Festival last month.

Choir member Paige Gadliardi, a senior, said she has always been a Styx fan and had known of Foreigner, whose former lead singer and co-founder was rock legend Lou Gramm of Webster, who left the band in 2003. However, she came away a Foreigner fan after her experience on stage with the group.

“I wasn't nervous until like five minutes before, then it hit me that I'm going to be on stage with famous people and all these people in the audience are expecting something,” Gadliardi said. “But it went off without a hitch and it was amazing.”

Gadliardi and Richelsen both said their families and friends came to the concert to support them, but had planned to attend the concert before that to see the headlining bands.

“I have never been on stage with a group of that caliber,” Gadliardi said. “It was quite a memory.”